Solomon: Addison suffers verbal slings after switching commitments

Bralon Addison and Matt Davis were talking on the phone while Texas A&M was losing a game to Kansas State.

It was a thrilling contest that the Aggies led 14-0 in the first quarter and 31-21 in the fourth quarter before eventually falling 53-50 in overtime. That was standard for the Aggies during the 2011 season.

So as Addison and Davis, difference-making high school quarterbacks, watched another collapse by the school each intended to attend, they vowed to bring a new attitude to College Station.

In the new-age vernacular, it would be a different swagger, Davis said. That “swag” Addison shared on Twitter that evening was the beginning of the “Agg Swag” movement.

From that point on, Agg Swag took on a life of its own, with A&M going on to land a nationally recognized recruiting class spurred by Addison and Davis.

But Wednesday, on national signing day, Addison, a quarterback for state runner-up Hightower, signed a letter of intent with Oregon instead of A&M.

Up pretty much all night pondering the most difficult decision in his 18 years on earth, Addison decided at around 4 a.m. to accept a scholarship from Oregon. The Ducks’ football program and the university’s broadcast journalism school won him over.

“It was very difficult,” Addison said. “I didn’t want to upset people, but at the same time, I wanted to make the best decision for me.”

Nothing wrong with that. After all, it is his life.

But soon after word spread that he would be a Duck instead of an Aggie, some idiots decided to chastise the young man for that decision. This is when social media disgusts, allowing anonymous clowns to have a field day on Twitter and the like.

“Just made the biggest mistake of your life!”

“how much they payin you? just as long as you know you made a mistake”

“buh bye mr irrelevant”

One numbskull even went biblical, posting from Colossians 3:9, which touches on lying, as if Addison had misled A&M when he chose to commit. I won’t even relay the host of comments directed at Addison that contained racial and sexual slurs.

As late as last week, A&M commitments were at the Chronicle for a photo shoot, joking with athletes who planned to attend Texas, Oklahoma State and other schools.

“You’ve still got a week left to change your mind,” they said. It was all in good fun.

Things change

If you know anything about a verbal commitment, you wouldn’t describe Addison’s change of heart as a lie. Teens change their minds all the time. Adults, too.

On Wednesday, the Aggies picked up letters of intent from two highly rated players — defensive lineman Edmond Ray of St. Louis (Missouri) and receiver Thomas Johnson of Dallas (Texas) — who had committed to other schools. Their lives, their decisions.

Actually, the “deal” Addison agreed to was no longer on the table.

Addison verbally committed to play for Mike Sherman and not Kevin Sumlin, the coach brought in after Sherman was fired in December. While Sumlin still wanted to have Addison on the roster, the new regime made it impossible for Addison to predict the future.

That he felt more comfortable with Chip Kelly at Oregon, an offensive mastermind who promises to give him a shot at playing quarterback, isn’t anything he should have to explain. Especially not to morons on the Internet.

“I just wonder if they have kids and how they would feel if their child had to make such a difficult decision,” Addison said of the naysayers. “I wonder about their character. Would they be OK if people criticized their son in the same situation?”

Of course not.

Addison, who has nearly 4,500 followers on Twitter, was so inundated with correspondence Tuesday that he asked them to back off.

“People I would really appreciate it if you guys stopped calling me (texting) me and tweeting me about this. I’ll make my decision on Wednesday! Until then could I please have some respect as a teenager and a human being?”

It didn’t work. The ridiculous messages kept coming.

‘No hard feeling’

Fans who take a teenager’s school choice so personally need help. If only they were as adult about this as Addison.

“I have no hard feelings about those who have sent those nasty messages and those who bring such hostility,” Addison said. “I’ll still root the Aggies on. At the end of it, I just made another choice. I love A&M, but made the choice that I thought was best for me.

“It was by far the hardest decision I have ever had to make. I really wish people would understand that and not be so mean about it.”

I expect the true, old school Aggie Swagger to overwhelm the immediate ugliness. Most Aggies are better than that.

But it is still a shame that this young man has to deal with it at all.